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Born George Stenius in South Bend, Indiana, of Swedish descent, baptized as Roman Catholic, and grew up in a Detroit Jewish neighborhood and described himself as a "Shabas goy". So he went on to learn Hebrew in an Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva and was even bar mitzvahed.[1] Seaton moved to Detroit after graduating from college to work as an actor on radio station WXYZ. John L. Barrett played The Lone Ranger on test broadcasts of the series in early January 1933, but when the program became part of the regular schedule Seaton was cast in the title role. In later years he claimed to have devised the cry "Hi-yo, Silver" because he couldn't whistle for his horse as the script required.[2]

But Not Goodbye, Seaton's 1944 Broadway debut as a playwright, closed after only 23 performances,[3] although it later was adapted for the 1946 film The Cockeyed Miracle by Karen DeWolf. In 1967 he returned to Broadway to direct the Norman Krasna play Love in E Flat, which was a critical and commercial flop.[4] The musical Here's Love, adapted from his screenplay for Miracle on 34th Street by Meredith Willson, proved to be more successful.